Evil Twin Brewing - Imperial Doughnut Break

Let's say you told me that there was a beer out there brewed with doughnuts. Lots of them. My first inclination would be the word "Yes." But then, if you gave me a second to think about it, you'd notice my expression change a bit as I slowly and painfully recalled my last experience with the words "beer" and "doughnut" together- Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. That monster of a beer briefly had me contemplating quitting beer altogether. So I'd probably turn down your doughnut beer offer and possibly run the other direction. "But wait," you'd say, "This isn't any doughnut beer and it's DEFINITELY not a Rogue beer. It's from Evil Twin. You know, those crazy Danish guys who made that Imperial Biscotti Break beer you liked so much. They made another like that one. But this time, they added over 1,000 doughnuts to the beer." "Fine," I'd say. "But if this is anything like the Rogue one, I'm not talking to you for a while." And then I'd take a sip.


Imperial Doughnut Break pours a rich black color with a light brown head. At 11%, I expected it to look a tad thicker, but it looked pretty tasty, nonetheless. The smell brings together a nice blend of dark chocolate and espresso notes. There are freshly ground coffee notes here, galore, with some almond meal and just a touch of doughnut cake. There's an overlying sweet aroma that definitely smelled like doughnut glaze. I could tell right away, fortunately, that this was going to be nothing like that horrid Rogue beer.

Similar to the smell, the first things you taste here are dark chocolate and espresso. There's some nuttiness in the middle, coupled with some chocolate cake and roasted malt notes. The doughnuts are surprisingly absent here, just barely creeping into the finish alongside some day old coffee notes and a light touch of char. Overall, this was a pretty nice beer, and far less diabetes-inducing than the name makes it sound. The espresso and roast notes here shine way more than the doughnuts do. And it tastes absolutely nothing like Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. So it's got that going for it. Which is nice.

Final Grade: B+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

Rogue Ales - Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale

If you're familiar with the city of Portland, you probably know about their infamous Voodoo Doughnut shop. If you haven't heard of them, I highly recommend checking out their menu here. Voodoo Doughnut has some crazy, crazy doughnuts, but the one that really put them on the map was their Bacon Maple Bar - a glazed maple bar with strips of bacon on the top. I was lucky enough to try one on my last trip to Portland and I can attest to it's tastiness.

Late last year, Rogue announced that they were using Voodoo Doughnut as an inspiration for their newest creation: Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. At first, I was really excited. Then the news hit that it was being brewed for distribution in Portland only and that there was a 1 case minimum if you wanted to buy it. My friend, Beau, and I briefly debated whether it was worth it to split a case and ultimately decided it was too much money to spend on a beer that we didn't really know much about. What if it was terrible? So I reluctantly passed on what I thought was my one chance to try Bacon Maple Ale and waited for the initial reviews to trickle in. Soon, the reviews began to show up and the news wasn't good. The consensus seemed to be that the beer was a failed experiment. After Beau moved to Portland, he was able to find a bottle and his take, too, was that it was an awful, awful beer. Now I kind of wanted to try it even more, if for no other reason than to see how bad it could be. Eventually, bottles began to trickle into bottleshops down here (and they were easy to spot too. Look at that thing!) Finally, I gave in and brought one home.

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale pours a clear copper color with a thin, sand-colored head. I really expected this beer to be darker for some reason, but it looked harmless enough so I brought it to my nose and took a sniff. Yikes. The first thing I smelled was syrup soaked pancakes. But not just any syrup soaked pancakes: This smelled exactly like IHOP pancakes (think dense, stomach sticking, camping pancakes) soaked in Log Cabin syrup. This wasn't the smell of high quality maple syrup, but the artificially sweetened stuff that I used to drink like water as a kid whenever my mom would let me near it. Behind the pancake smell were heavy notes of molasses, smoked wood and burnt bacon fat.

After smelling this, I wasn't exactly in a rush to see what it tasted like. Eventually, I went for it and it was (not surprisingly) gross. The pancake flavor hits first, but instead of the maple syrup soaked pancakes I got in the smell, this was more like pancakes soaked in alcohol. Big waves of charred malt follow along with some liquid smoke and maybe just a touch of glazed doughnut sweetness. The finish brings a lot more smoke and leaves a bit of a peaty dryness on the tongue. The mouthfeel felt way light for all the heavy flavors this beer presents and made this thing an absolute beast to finish. I think that the flavors in this beer are far more suited to a stout or porter than whatever the base beer in this is. Overall, this (somehow) isn't the worst beer I've had, but it's very, very far up there. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

Final Grade: D-


Top 100 Beers Tasted: 38

Rogue Brewery - Chocolate Stout

In a few short weeks, we will be embarking on our trip up to Oregon for the Hood to Coast. In case we have some extra time up there, I looked up some of the breweries in Portland and found that Rogue has a brewhouse right in downtown. Score! Not only that, but the airport happens to have a bar in it that is run by Rogue. I don't know for sure yet, but something tells me this trip needs to be extended a few days.

To get in the spirit, I've decided to try and get my hands on a few of their beers before we go up there. So far, I've only tried their Dead Guy Ale and their Hazelnut Brown Nectar. Then, a few weeks ago, I spotted their Chocolate Stout in the market and had to pick it up.

Rogue's Chocolate Stout pours a deep and thick brown with an almost Abyss-like dark brown foamy head. The head had really great retention and left a lot of lacing down the glass. When you smell the beer, it smells like cocoa. And not like Swiss Miss cheap cocoa, but the best cocoa you can imagine.

While the smell of this beer pretty much sticks to "chocolate," the flavors locked in it are a bit more complex. There is definitely a lot of chocolate in this beer, but it's not as sweet as the smell leads you to believe. The chocolate is definitely bittersweet with a slight hoppiness coming through about midway in the taste. The finish is a hard hit of bittersweet chocolate that is perfect. The mouthfeel of this beer is really smooth and almost milky. A very smooth beer and a solid offering from Rogue. I'm excited to try more of their stuff before I head up there.

Final Grade: A

Rogue Brewery - Hazelnut Brown Nectar

Just when I thought I wasn't a fan of brown ales, Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar came along.

Going into last weekend, I had been hearing a lot about Rogue's beers, but I hadn't tried many of them. Actually, their Dead Guy Ale was the only one I had ever tried. I had been reading up on their beers a lot and the more I read, the more I wanted to try them. Rogue happens to have a brewhouse in downtown Portland, so there's a pretty good chance that will be on the itinerary when Hood to Coast comes around. Anyways, on Saturday, I was in a bar watching the Spain vs. Paraguay game when I looked on the menu and saw they had a Rogue beer on tap- Hazelnut Brown Nectar. Sold.

The beer is a deep brown color with ruby and orange tinges. The smell told me right away that I was going to like this beer. Hazelnut aromas and sweet malts jumped out at me and really made me want to dive into this one. The taste didn't disappoint. It was sweet and full of hazelnut with a gentle finish that had a bit of brown sugar in it. Nectar is a pretty good description. This is a really fantastic beer and makes me really want to try some more of Rogue's offerings. Now that I think about it, I remember seeing a bunch of them at BevMo. Hmmmm.... More on this in the near future.

Final Grade: A